Overview:

Marian Sokol has been called an angel, but you will not find her playing a harp in a white robe. She is in the trenches, creatively running the multi-faceted Any Baby Can, a nonprofit organization that helps children born with special needs live up to their full potential. Executive Director Sokol invents solutions, creates services, coordinates agencies, locates funding, builds up volunteer cadres, consoles and encourages families, manages a staff, and adds immeasurably to improving the quality of crisis-oriented little lives. "Any Baby Can has multiple sources of funds and services and an ever increasing number of recipients," Sokol explains.

Sage MIP Fund Accounting

Modules:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Bank Reconciliation
• Budget
• Data Import & Export
• Direct Deposit
• General Ledger
• Payroll

Any Baby Can

Marian Sokol has been called an angel, but you will not find her playing a harp in a white robe. She is in the trenches, creatively running the multi-faceted Any Baby Can, a nonprofit organization that helps children born with special needs live up to their full potential. Executive Director Sokol invents solutions, creates services, coordinates agencies, locates funding, builds up volunteer cadres, consoles and encourages families, manages a staff, and adds immeasurably to improving the quality of crisis-oriented little lives. "Any Baby Can has multiple sources of funds and services and an ever increasing number of recipients," Sokol explains.

A three-year start-up grant from the Texas Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities ran out in 1985, prompting Sokol to harness her entrepreneurial spirit in service to the babies. Always running behind in funding, she oversaw the enrollment of 400 volunteer workers, including senior citizens, who donate their hours for hands-on, day-to-day care. Sokol directs ABC with a staff of 30 dedicated employees, including a recently hired development director. She has instituted a sophisticated computer system that makes the complex interaction of 300 agencies with volunteers and recipients possible, and she lobbies heavily for private donations as well as state and federal funds.

The result is a fast-growing organization, which helps more than 2,000 families a year cope with birth crises. In 1992, President Bush designated ABC as the 735th "Point of Light."

"We give everything–hugs and moral support, information, hands-on help and quick access to all the right agencies and services a family in crisis needs. Many of our babies and their families start out with a dependence on medical care and social services. In the search for treatment, they face frustrations with red tape. The family becomes stressed, often to the point of splitting apart, without some encouragement to get through it all. We try to be there immediately after the birth, to help keep the family together."

In 16 years, ABC has spread from San Antonio to Austin and Kerrville, expanding the care area to 21 contiguous Texas counties. "We'll never run out of children who need us," Sokol said, "but we are always in danger of not having enough funding."

"We try to ensure that the ABC system is user friendly," Sokol said. "Our three big commitments are to intervention, prevention, and tracking. To manage the multiple sources of funding–city, state, and federal grants, plus donations from a variety of fund-raising events–ABC is installing Sage MIP Fund Accounting software from Sage Software. "We are desperately in need of accounting and reporting capabilities," Sokol said. "Our organization is complex, with all kinds of different reporting requirements, boards in three different cities, and funding that's coming from everywhere. Our goal is to help others with crisis care, and we need to let Sage Software help us handle our accounting nightmare. Sage Software understands the special issues we face as a nonprofit."

From the time Sokol left her San Antonio College teaching position in 1982 to start ABC, she has always prioritized on helping families. In addition to directing ABC, she now advocates for public policy both in Texas and Washington. Sokol's efforts continue to focus on families, and how to manage crises that revolve around children with chronic illness and disabilities. One project looks into managed care plans and determines how children are faring. Sokol is on the national Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) board and serves on the National Vaccine Commission. And, she researches funding and tries to get health care dollars to the states, so they can help their residents.

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